Paths
by Spoiled Sweet
Summary: No one said it would be easy to be a Hatake. One-shots centering on Sakura, Kakashi, and their offspring.
1. The Hatake Legacy

**The Hatake Legacy**

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Disclaimer: I do not own the universe, the characters, or anything in between because if I did it'd make a modicum of sense.

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Notes: No real spoilers here, guys. This takes place after the end of House Calls and you all know how House Calls is going to end: with babies and marriage and rainbows.

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"I'm sorry, Dad."

"For what?"

"I don't know… everything?"

Kakashi glanced over at his son, who was sitting with his head hanging as he chewed his lips and worried the fraying hem of his cropped trousers between his fingers.

A chip off the old block—though admittedly more Sakura's block than his own. From the pale pink of his son's shaggy hair to the precise chakra control that had made his mother a legend, he seemed every bit _her_ son. But he was genius like his dad, a natural at anything and everything he tried. He flew through the academy at a speed to rival his father's, dazzling his teachers as he conquered everything thrown his way until he finally had to turn to his mother and her medical ninjutsu for a real challenge.

But there were rumors beginning to circulate centering on the boy and while Kakashi never cared much for gossip, he always kept an ear to the ground out of principle and was grateful now that he did.

Sakumo had refused a kill order. It wasn't unusual for a genin or a young chuunin to do this on the occasion, but this was getting to be a regular thing and it couldn't be ignored any more. Or that was the chatter. It hadn't affected the mission one way or the other—Kakashi guessed that Sakumo had made sure it _wouldn't_—and Naruto wasn't going to punish anyone, let alone a fourteen-year-old boy, for refusing to kill in cold blood, but it was raising a lot of questions about his future as a ninja. After all, even medics had to kill on the occasion.

Kakashi took a breath and lifted his eyes to stare across the empty training ground, the wood of the striking post pressed to his back and his son's shoulder pressed to his side. Finally, he looked down at his son again. "I heard about what's been going on."

Sakumo's shoulders sunk a little more.

"Is that what you were apologizing for?"

The boy nodded wordlessly.

Kakashi nodded as well and then lifted his hand, cupped the side of the boy's head in it and pulled him close. Sakumo stiffened, but only for a few seconds before he bodily slumped into his father and hid his face in the man's flak jacket.

"I ignored an order," the boy mumbled.

"It happens."

Sakumo laughed hoarsely and took a shaky breath. "You know what they're calling me?" he asked. "The Defective Hatake." He laughed again, the sound muffled again his dad's chest. "You and Grandpa and Mom are all legends and now you've got me and I can't even…" He trailed off, as he clenched his fists and added, with the conviction of someone much older, "But I don't have to. I'm going to be a ninja and I'm going to serve Konohagakure until I die."

For a long while, his father said nothing in reply as he stared into the middle distance, but with a shake of his head he came back to himself. "I don't want you to ever apologize for that sort of thing. You have to do what you feel is right and sometimes that means a little insubordination." He glanced over at his son. "I think I owe you an apology, though."

Sakumo jerked away, as if burned. "For what?"

Kakashi shrugged one shoulder. "I never realized the burden that your mother and I were placing on you when we named you after your grandfather. I know how people are; how things work. They all expect you to live up to your namesake's legend." He chuckled a little and lifted a hand to push his son's hair out of his eyes—the dark, tired gray eyes of a Hatake. "I think _you_ expect you to live up to it."

The boy pulled away to sit a shoulder width away from his father, looking heartbroken. "You don't think I can, do you?"

"Oh, you could. But I don't want you to."

Sakumo's eyes darted up quickly to meet his father's. "What?"

Kakashi smiled, but only for a second before it faded into a much more somber expression. "It took me a long time to find my way," he said. "I had to lose my father and my best friend, I had to fight in two wars, and I _died_—" He smirked very briefly at his son's confusion at this—"Before I found out what mattered to me and figured out who I was. That's why I'm so proud of you for finding your way so soon." The man smiled again when his son's eyes went wide and reflexively he reached out to squeeze the boy's shoulder. "Sakumo, the only path I want you to take is the one that you're going to carve out for yourself." He held up his empty hands for show as he smiled again, brighter this time. "That's it. Understood?"

Sakumo was stunned silent at first and then he croaked out some kind of laugh to cover up a sob as tears began welling in his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. He quickly tried to hide them from his father, who pretended not to notice. After a while, when the boy could finally speak again, the only thing he managed was a quiet, but desperately heartfelt, "Yes."

Kakashi smiled, but before he could say anything more, a tagged kunai drilled itself into the ground between them.

Sakumo immediately threw himself to the side to get out of range, but Kakashi was unimpressed and just when the boy was starting to question his father's sanity, his will to live, and his general reputation as a genius, the tag exploded… with a very small and very impotent _pop_.

A trill of shrieking giggles followed this from somewhere in the trees behind them and Sakumo reflexively smashed his face into his palm. "You got me, Ran," he called.

Another giggle and a moment later a girl, maybe only eleven-years-old, landed in a crouch on top of the striking post Kakashi still sat with his back to. Her hair was pale gray like the Copy-nin's, cropped short, and left to stand haphazardly in every direction, except for one long braid she wore in front of her left ear. It reached nearly to her collarbones and was decorated with a jade bead and an explosive paper tag. "You make it too easy sometimes, Sakumo," she said with a smile before leaning forward and looking down at Kakashi, her bright green eyes sparkling. "Hey, Boss."

Kakashi smiled back at her. "How was your mission?"

"Boring."

"Wind Country was boring?" he wondered, reaching up and pulling her easily into his lap.

"With a capital _or_," she replied, sprawling dramatically out and throwing an arm over her eyes. "Konohamaru-sensei was all 'stealth' this and 'quiet' that—totally. _Boring_."

Kakashi shared a meaningful look with his son and then hefted himself up, easily lifting his daughter in the process and then dropping her onto her own feet.

Ran looked to her brother as she fell into step between him and their father, both of her hands folded around the Copy-nin's. If she had noticed her brother's wet cheeks or his furious attempts to remedy them, she gave no indication. "I heard someone call you something really stupid today when we were checking in at the mission desk," she said with a frown. "Some chuunin said something about you being a screw up or something."

Sakumo cringed.

"So I punched him in the throat." She beamed happily at her brother's almost horrified expression. "He won't be calling you nothing anymore if he's smart."

Sakumo stared at her and then, apparently deciding to be touched by the gesture, he wobbled his head a little in a nod. "Uh… thanks?"

"No problem!" she chimed. Then, suddenly and without any warning or reason whatsoever, she lunged ahead of them and began to turn somersaults across the training field with the same manic energy that found her occasionally doing hand stands on the roof and setting spring-loaded traps in the kitchen cupboards at home.

Kakashi watched her for a moment, contemplating how very badly he and Sakura needed to send Iruka something nice for not throwing the girl out of his class, before looking to his son again. He tipped his head in question when their eyes met. Sakumo nodded back, his lips creased in a small smile.

Kakashi worried for perhaps a split of a second about the path his son had chosen. It wouldn't be easy, it wouldn't be long before he was forced to question what he believed, and someday he would be forced to betray those ideals. But maybe, Kakashi thought with an ironic smile, a great deal of cynicism, and a tiny trace of hope, taking the most treacherous path was the Hatake legacy.

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1. Because who don't like some KakaSaku babies? Meet Sakumo and Ran.

2. Sakumo is Sakumo rather than Obito for two reasons. First off, I wanted Kakashi to name his son after his father as a way of showing that he has completely come to terms with his father's death. Secondly, because there's a naming convention in Naruto where the names of the children reflect their parent's name and Sakumo and Sakura are adorably similar.

3. Ran is Ran for two reasons. First of all, Ran is just close enough to Rin to be a nod to her. Secondly, because the name "Ran", as I understand it, means something like "orchid" or the like and the flower theme-naming between her and Sakura is adorably similar.

4. Sakumo is supposed to be a version of "Blessed with Suck"-in HIS eyes at least. He'd rather not be talented at all and have an excuse not to be a ninja. Instead he's very, very good at being a ninja... he's just not crazy about the "killing" part of the job. He becomes a medic like his mom.

5. Ran's character can be summed up almost entirely by noting that the tag in her hair is indeed an exploding tag and can indeed be activated. All girls are cuter with hair decs after all... especially ones that explode.

6. And I'd explore her character a little more here, but depending on the response to this, there will probably be a part two addressing Ran's character conflict.

7. **For all of my regular readers:** House Calls will be updated eventually. It's not technically on hiatus and it will be attended to shortly. I've been having some health problems lately that have been preventing me from being very productive. If you're terribly curious, you can jump over to my DA page for an explanation in my blog. In the mean time, Blithe Spirits (yes, that one) will be updated within the next week.

8. Review please?


	2. Firefly

**Firefly**

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"So, what's with the hat? It's kind of goofy."

"It's not goofy. It's a part of the Kage ensemble."

"Why are you still wearing it outside of the office?"

"Hat hair."

"Can I see?"

"No."

"When are Sai and Sakumo-nii coming home?"

"It's hard to say. Maybe tonight, maybe in a few days; you can't always tell with missions."

Ran hummed as she crouched low, her eyes fixated on a glowing firefly perched on a dandelion a few feet away from her. "I want them back soon. I miss them."

"Duly noted," Naruto replied as he reached over to lower her shoulders a little further to the ground. He was crouching beside her, getting grass stains on his outer-robe and hoping that he could coax Sakura into washing them out before morning while she was washing Ran's yukata. She'd scold him for acting like a little kid, but he figured it was worth it to see Ran's thousand-watt grin when he told her that he'd teach her how to catch fireflies.

Speaking of the devil, he glanced back at the Hatake house where Sakura stood watching them from just inside the opened, porch screen. She looked relaxed enough. Her hair was down and she had changed into a simple yukata, but she was frowning and it was just then that he noticed Kakashi standing just behind her in the shadows of the room.

That's right. He looked at Ran.

"So, how's class going?" he asked as she crept up on a firefly, which then flew away to her disappointment.

The girl sighed and hopped to her feet. "Fine, I guess," she said. "Mom had a talk with Iruka-sensei today."

"Oh? I wonder what about."

"Probably the same thing her and Dad are talking about right now." She spared a sideways look her parents' way.

The Hokage raised his eyebrows at this. "Can you hear them?" He wouldn't be surprised if she could. She was, after all, Kakashi's daughter.

Ran looked from him, to her parents, and then back and after a moment of deliberation she raised her hand to press her index finger to her lips at the same time that she offered out her pinkie. Naruto smiled at this and got up on his knees to be face-to-face with her before lifting an index finger to his lips and wrapping his pinkie around hers. She smiled and her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Sai is teaching me to read lips," she whispered.

Ah, so Sai needed another lesson on what was and was not appropriate to teach his beloved niece.

She looked over at her parents again. "Anyway, Iruka-sensei doesn't think that I'm ready to graduate."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the girl, who beamed back at him. "Maybe you're not reading them right," he tried.

She laughed and held fast to his pinkie as her finger returned to her lips. "I read Iruka-sensei's notes."

"You what?" he demanded with the slightest of whines creeping into his tone. "C'mon, Ran! You can't tell me that kind of stuff. I mean, I supposed to be the Hokage here. I should do something about it or at least yell a little or something."

Ran pretty much ignored him as she dropped his hand and got back into position to make another attempt on a second, unsuspecting bug.

"Ran," he said, scowling a little. "Are you listening?"

"Not really," she replied with a happy smile.

Naruto sighed and settled for watching her as she pounced and missed again.

She was little, even for her age, but gangly and cat-like, which worked well to her advantage. A lack of inherent ninja talent or not, the girl could move like lightning and that combined with her natural flexibility and agility made her a formidable opponent for most potential babysitters. Those that she couldn't outrun, she could usually outmaneuver.

He frowned. None of that really accounted for much, though. He had seen Iruka's notes on her too and saw that she was almost abysmally average across the board. She grasped the basics, but didn't excel in ninjutsu like her father, she lacked her mother's chakra control, and while her hand-eye abilities were top notch, she just wasn't built for extensive taijutsu combat.

Naruto sighed. There was nothing wrong with average and a lot could change in the next year before she was eligible for the exams, but he worried, like he knew Sakura worried. Ran was a Hatake, the offspring of two living legends, and yet not likely to become anything more than a courier or desk jockey at the tower, which wouldn't be so bad if the girl didn't seem to have her heart so set on being like her parents. She had the spirit of a Konoha legend through and through, just not the required skill.

"So what are your mom and dad saying?" he asked after a while.

Ran paused and looked her parents' way again. Kakashi had standing directly behind his wife now, his arms wrapped around her and his chin resting on her shoulder. "I can't really tell what Dad is saying, duh, but Mom's… worried." She frowned at this. "She does that a lot."

Naruto watched her for a moment and then got to his feet, hoping to distract her. "We should head inside, Ran. I bet dinner's almost done."

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Naruto was dozing on the porch later that night when Ran confronted her parents, who were snuggling together on a bench a stone's throw away.

The Hokage cracked open an eye to watch the girl approached them, a bounce in her step and her hands behind her back. She paused in front of them and then turned on her heels to face them, her movements sharp and military-like.

This drew an amused half-smile from her mother. "What is it, Ran?"

"I want to talk about what Iruka-sensei said earlier today."

Kakashi and Sakura shared a look. "Ran, were you eavesdropping again?" her father asked, pulling himself upright in his seat.

Ran smiled, proudly. "Nope. I read his notes in my folder."

Naruto felt her parents' stares shift to him. "She told me already," he replied, throwing his hands up in a show of surrender. "I figured I'd leave the scolding to you two."

Kakashi rubbed at his face and leaned forward to take his daughter by the waist, pulling her in a little closer. She responded by wrapping one arm around his neck in return. "Ran," he began, slowly and beseechingly, "What did I tell you about sneaking peeks at things that aren't yours?"

Ran shrugged. "Don't get caught."

Sakura frowned in disapproval at her husband, who shrank a little away from her. "I meant don't get caught doing it on a mission," he said. "Around the village you have to keep that nose of yours out of things."

The girl stared blankly at him for a moment before looking to her mother. "I know that Iruka-sensei doesn't think I'm ready to graduate next year," she said. "Can we talk about that?"

Her parents shared a look between them and then Sakura reached out to her daughter, smiling as one of the girl's hands slid into hers. "Ran, you know we love you and we'll always love you, no matter what." She glanced at Kakashi again. "And we want you to be happy. We don't expect you to become a ninja just because we are. You're free to be your own person and to make your own choices and we're sorry if it ever felt like we pressured you. If this isn't what you want or what suits you, your father and I will support whatever path you do choose. Being a ninja isn't meant for everyone."

Ran stared at her mother for a moment before suddenly shifting her grip to wrap her pinkie around the woman's. With her other hand, she did the same to her father. "_I_," she began purposefully, sparing them both a look, "am going to graduate next year and I am going to be a ninja and I am going to be just as awesome as you." She glanced between them, smiling. "That's what I want."

Sakura sighed. "Sweetie—"

"Mom, I know I'm not as smart or as talented or as anything as Sakumo or you or Dad," the girl went on, "But I'm going to figure it out. It doesn't matter what a stupid chart and some stupid notes say. I don't care. I know what I'm going to be." She grinned again. "Okay?"

Her parents shared another worried look, but eventually both nodded in agreement.

Ran smiled happily and swooped in to kiss Sakura on the cheek and Kakashi on the nose, rolling his mask down and then back up to do so. Then, with a cheesy salute, she bounded off, stealing Naruto's hat mid-leap off the porch.

"Hey!"

Kakashi hummed contently as he slid and arm around his wife and leaned his head against hers, watching their esteemed Hokage chase after their daughter only to be avoided at every turn. Sakura was not nearly as content. "So," she began, "what do you think her chances are?"

The man's eyes creased in reply. "She's like you; she doesn't take 'no' for an answer. I think she'll be just fine."

Sakura eyed him for a moment and then settled back with a small smile pulling at her lips. "Me too."

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1. Hey guys! I know it's been a while, but I am in fact still alive. These are just a lot easier to bang out than chapters for the other fics.

2. Speaking of which... yeah, I know I promised updates, but they will be put off for a little while longer. I'm hoping to get something out soon, as I have surgery on the 26th of Oct, but that's not a promise.

3. I'm having surgery! To remove the bladder of galls. Or the failbladder as I've taken to calling it.

4. But onto writer-y stuff! This chapter is not as deep or as poignant or as sentimental as the last one. And that's kind of intentional. Ran is not only a very different character than Sakumo, but she's also got a very different conflict. Her struggle is simply that of proving herself and finding a way to do so. Sakumo's is much more tied in with a moral struggle and that always wins out in the 'deep' department. I'm sorry, but just trying to prove yourself versus feeling pressure to do something that you feel might damn you, the latter will always seem much deeper. Ran's struggle isn't any less meaningful, but hers isn't so much about a moral thing as it is about an esteem thing and showing that she's a Hatake too.

5. And this does run some parallels to Naruto and Lee, but I have some arguments: Ran is actually rather well-liked by her peers (which will come up in one of the other chapters) and Ran doesn't have what they do, what they have being massive chakra stores (and plot armor) and an inhuman drive to DO (and some more plot armor), respectively. Ran is average. This is average in everything except what's noted: speed and agility. And sneakiness. Come to think of it, it's kind of ironic. She'd make an AWESOME ninja... in our world. Not so much in Naruto's though. Those are useless unless you are either SO good you will NEVER be caught or have the firepower to back up your fuck-ups. Ran doesn't. At least not yet. Which brings me to-

6. Chronologically, this comes before chapter 1. Obviously. She's not even out of the academy yet. The one big note here that I can give you that you guys can all run with: at this point, she is not yet wearing an explosive tag in her hair.

7. And that's much more cryptic than I mean it to be, but meh.

8. Anyway, if you liked this or at least enjoyed the fluffy idea of Naruto and Ran firefly hunting together, review!


	3. The Female of the Species

**WHEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,  
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.  
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.  
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.**

- Kipling "The Female of the Species"

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Kakashi watched her Sakura fiddle with their son's IV and then check his vitals. He hated hospitals, but he found himself occupying them more and more willingly since his entrance into fatherhood. On that note, it was a handy thing that he was already, in Sakura's words, a "silver fox". The number of training accidents between his children surely would have made him one in record time otherwise. Now that they were both being sent out on missions, he wondered if he'd start balding.

"How's he?" he asked quietly, trying not to wake Sakumo or Ran, who was curled up at the foot of her brother's bed like a cat, her tagged braid dangling off the side of the bed.

"Fine," Sakura replied with audible relief. "His blood pressure has been stable for almost two hours now and his fever has broken. The antidote he came up with worked." She practically beamed at her son's sleeping form and reached out to stroke his hair. "That's my boy."

Kakashi nodded and beckoned his wife to him by opening his arms to her.

She smiled and drew closer to drop into his lap whereupon they folded themselves around each other in a tight embrace.

"I have an idea," he murmured into her neck.

"What's that?"

"We seal them away somewhere that they can't be hurt."

Sakura laughed throatily into his hair. "You and I both know that'd never work," she whispered. "Ran would just take it as a challenge."

He smiled and turned his head, seeking out her lips to kiss her.

This was interrupted by a sudden commotion in the hallway and a chorus of raised voices.

Kakashi and his wife shared questioning looks before they both got to their feet and moved for the door. "Ibiki," he murmured when he saw the tall man sweeping down the hallway, a young Yamanaka at his side and three nurses at their heels and desperately attempting to stop them.

Sakura glanced back at her son in bed. "What does the Interro-squad want?"

"The retrieval team found the rest of his squad dead near the border of Rain," Kakashi replied with a heavy sigh and a tight, sinking feeling in his chest. "It must have something to do with that."

The woman breathed deeply through her nose and shook her head. "They won't get anything now. I just gave him enough sedatives to put out a horse." At his questioning look she rolled her eyes and added, "He is _your_ son."

Kakashi smiled wryly for a second, but it vanished again in an instant. "That's probably why he brought the Yamanaka. They don't need him awake for a mind probe."

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?"

Sakura snorted like an irritated bull. "I'm not letting them come in here to make him relive all of that just now," she hissed. "He spent a week in the middle of nowhere, poisoned, and formulating his own antidote. He should have been dead two days ago, Kakashi. Right now, he needs to rest while he can." She glanced back at their son again. "He'll have plenty of time for nightmares."

The Copy-Nin nodded, his lips pressing together into a tight line as he tried to shake the idea of his own son's funeral. "How do you want to do this?" he whispered.

The woman's jaw tightened as she straightened her shoulders. "I'll talk to them and make them leave. You stay here."

Kakashi nodded and spared her a sideways look. "Play nice."

She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. "Of course."

With that, she swept out of the room, her husband watching her go with a swelling feeling of pride.

It was a well-known and universally accepted truth that Haruno Sakura was a formidable woman and despite her fame in all five of the Great Villages there was no place that this was better known than in Konoha. She was everything her master was and upon perfecting the Yin Seal and acquiring an amber-colored rhombus that she bore proudly in the middle of her once much loathed forehead, the transformation had been acknowledged as complete. Tsunade's spark was fading with her ever increasing age, but it was now a guarantee that it would never truly die.

Something, however, happened when Haruno Sakura became _Hatake_ Sakura and then subsequently a mother of two. That _something_ was widely agreed to be a sharp increase in just how fierce and terrifying she could be.

For example, it said something about a woman when the sight of her stomping down the hallway made someone like Morino Ibiki, who had been busy side-stepping and politely ignoring the nurses up until this point, stop in his tracks.

Kakashi grinned with some degree of satisfaction.

"Hatake-san—" The interrogation expert began in a firm, authoritative tone that might have been attempting to quell the argument before it could start.

"Morino-san, is this a social call? How sweet of you."

The Yamanaka who followed on Ibiki's coat tails recognized the woman immediately and he surreptitiously stepped behind his superior. Ibiki shot his subordinate a dark look and then lifted his hands in what was either a placating or defensive gesture—possibly both—as Sakura came to a stop just a few feet from him. "I know that this situation is not ideal," he began. "However, we must know what happened."

Sakura folded her arms and cocked her hips. "When my son is awake, I'll write the report with him and hand it to you personally."

"That is not good enough." Ibiki gestured to the Yamanaka. "You know very well that a mind probe will not exacerbate his condition. Now, excuse us."

Ibiki inclined his head respectfully to Sakura and made a move to sidestep around her, but came to another halt when the woman caught the sleeve of his coat by her fingertips. "You should know that I understand and appreciate your situation and the responsibilities that bear down on you in the wake of this event, Morino-san," she began in a voice so quiet Kakashi almost couldn't hear her properly. "But the fact is that I almost lost my son. Now, you don't have children, so you can't even begin to understand how it grieves me to even _speak_ those words, but you do have a brother and you must know how powerful the urge to protect one's family can be." She looked up at him then, her expression tranquil but dangerously stern. "So, I trust that you'll understand and appreciate this: we are five stories up and if you take one more step towards my son's room the nurses will have to scrape you off of the lobby floor."

With her gauntlet thrown, Kakashi watched his wife's hand drop back to her side.

Ibiki visibly hesitated. He had a foot of height, almost a hundred pounds, and fifteen years of experience on the woman beside him, but being a man in possession of an acute knowledge of the workings of the human mind, he also understood, maybe better than anyone else, just how sincere she was. And after a few moments of careful deliberation, he took a step backward, his chin dipping briefly in acknowledgment. "I want that report within twenty-four hours."

"You'll get it when my son is up to writing it."

"Hatake-san—"

"If that doesn't work for you, we could shoot for the sub-basement."

Kakashi felt arms wrap around his waist and a head come to rest against his hip. "Boss? What's going on?" Ran's eyes were trained on her mother, as narrow and calculating as they were sleepy. Suddenly, recognition registered in them. "Is that Ibiki-sensei?"

"Yes."

"What are they talking about?"

Kakashi smiled and easily picked his daughter up, supporting her with one arm as she wrapped her arms and legs around him in return. "Ran, there's something important you have to know about your mother."

"What's that?"

He sat the girl down gently on the foot of her brother's bed and then reached up to pull the tag and tie off the end of her braid, which had been mussed in her sleep. "She's scary."

Ran laughed as she shook her head to undo the plait of her braid and then raked her fingers through the locks. "Well, I know that."

Kakashi smiled and began to gently braid her hair again. "She'd also do anything to protect you and your brother. So would I."

"I know that too," she replied, beaming at him.

"You do?"

"You say it all the time, Dad." She tied the end of her braid, the beads and tag coming to rest against her shoulder when she finished. "So, Mom's scaring Ibiki-sensei off so he can't interrogate Sakumo yet?"

Sometimes, with Ran being such a grinning and hyperactive disaster-waiting-to-happen, the Copy-Nin forgot how genuinely fast his daughter was to catch on. "Yes. Exactly."

"Do you think she needs any help?"

He laughed. "No, probably not, but if you run really fast, I'm sure you can ride the elevator down with him."

"Can I press all of the buttons?"

"Yes, please."

She grinned, saluted, and then darted off of the bed and around her mother as Sakura re-entered the room. "Where is she going?" she asked, leaning out the door to stare after her daughter.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Kakashi replied. "How'd it go?"

Sakura shrugged. "Ibiki is a perfectly reasonable man," she said. "He was happy to compromise."

He nodded, decided not to say anything about her offered tour of the sub-basement, and wrapped his arms around his wife. "Our kids," he began, his eyes transfixed on his son's sleeping form, "Are pretty impressive, aren't they?"

"It's a good thing too. His recovery will take anywhere from a week to a few months, depending on the damage done. That isn't even taking possible post-traumatic stress into consideration." Sakura looked up at her husband. "This is his first major loss as a medic and you know how he is. He'll think it's his fault."

Kakashi sighed and squeezed her gently. "I know. He'll get through it, though. That's why we're here."

Sakura nodded and moved to sit on the edge of her son's bed while Kakashi went to the window to take up his seat there again.

* * *

1. Just something short to help me exercise some stress, of which I have had a lot lately. I'm sorry guys, updates will be really slow until I can get back into things. Real life has gotten in the way again.

2. For a few giggles, the post script conversation between Ran and Ibiki in the elevator went something like this (with the Yamanaka just standing there and wondering if he was hallucinating):

"I'm not going to let you hurt my brother, you know."

"I have no intentions to hurt him."

"But you're on the Interrogation _and_ Torture Squad."

"Both are not always necessary. For example, I will be only interrogating your brother."

"So it's more like the Interrogation _or_ Torture Squad?"

"Something like that."

"How about the Interrogation and-or Torture Squad?"

"Your father put you up to this, didn't he?"

3. Obviously my Ibiki is extremely patient with children. Then again, I think he'd be extremely patient in general, with children or otherwise. The man's profession would require a whole lot of that. You can't rush into breaking people's spirits and minds, you know. It's a slow process full of art and precision.

4. And, no, I don't think Ran would be afraid of Ibiki. Mostly because Ran isn't the kind of person who knows any strangers and would only shy away from someone actively trying to kill her. Even then, she'd probably be pretty affable about the whole ordeal.

5. And she'd think his scars were cool.

6. Yes, what I am basically saying is that Sakumo (let's say at fifteen) was stranded in hostile territory, poisoned, and alone and he still managed to McGuyver his own antidote in order to survive long enough for a retrieval team to find him, presumably keeping himself hidden from enemy ninja in the process and just generally proving just how badass people named Hatake Sakumo really are.

7. Sounds like Kakashi's son through and through, I think.

8. And the whole point of this thing? Sakura just occurred to me as the kind of woman that upon becoming a mother would take 30 levels in awesome and put all of her skill points into kicking ass and taking names. Even if you don't think she COULD take on someone like Ibiki, best you not think she wouldn't TRY.


	4. Family Matters

**Family Matters**

* * *

**Midwife**

Sakura is probably the only pregnant woman in recent memory with a body count. It wasn't her fault, after all, that she was six months pregnant and delivering the baby of a Daimyo to the north on the same day that the second largest clan of the village decides to riot. Six months pregnant with her first child or not, it was her job to keep both the Daimyo and her baby safe and as the clan found out, Sakura was very good at her job.

* * *

**Son**

Kakashi feels like a three-year-old handling a kunai when his son is handed to him in a bundle of blue blankets. The boy is so small and so pink and he worries that he'll break him. That is, until his son breaks free of his confines to grab one of his father's fingers. He smiles when he feels the strength in that tiny grip and it reminds him of the child's mother and he realizes that he really doesn't have anything to worry about.

* * *

**Daughter**

Sakura's second pregnancy is less of a surprise, although neither she nor her husband are quite sure when they had mutually come to the decision that they wanted another child. They're just both relieved when Hatake Ran comes into the world flushed with life and screaming at the top of her lungs.

* * *

**Communication**

Sakumo and Ran are practically inseparable. However, it still surprises their parents when they begin speaking in a language that only they understand.

When _Sai_ begins picking up the language, Sakura is outright fascinated while Kakashi is just grateful for a translator.

"Ikki bikki ni, Momo."

"Ibi nil, Mei-mei."

"Biti bit na!"

Sakura watched her sixteen-year-old daughter and nineteen-year-old son argue over the bowl of ice cream they were sharing at the kitchen counter. She looked to Sai. "Break that up, please."

Sai spared her a long suffering look because he had been breaking up these fights for a good fourteen years now. He stood and approached the pair, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "Bebe, nic-tin tantan bic. Pey ben pit no e, Narnar."

Ran scowled at her uncle. "Sasa! Kiki ni tint tan nono!"

"Ben pick pan."

"Bobo ikki tic!"

"Ibi nil."

The girl threw her hands up in the air and shoved a spoonful of ice cream angrily into her mouth.

Her mother was grateful to understand at least that much.

* * *

**Singular**

Ran is four when a mishap with some bubblegum necessitates the short cropping of her hair. She's thrilled rather than traumatized by the experience and she declares that she loves it.

When Ran is five, she decides to stop cutting the hair on one side of her head and braid it. When she's eight and the braid is long enough to reach her shoulder, Sakumo helps her tie one of their mother's exploding tags and a bead onto the end of the braid.

Ran is not even a chuunin when a dangerous mission and crash course in stealth operations forces her to cut the braid and when she begins letting her hair grow out afterward, her mother wonders if this is a sign of her growing up. She's also envious because Ran's hair comes in softer and fuller than she could ever get hers to grow in her youth.

Then at fourteen and quite possibility motivated by the desire to vex her mentor in an extravagantly calculated manner, Ran begins to wear her hair, long and uneven as it was, tied up in a snowy spray on top of her head with one portion separated and left hanging and braided in front of her ear, decorated with a string of three, small tags and three jades beads while in her opposing ear she wears a single, feathered earring. In time she adds more braids and beads and when she's sixteen and manages to take a bell from her father, it joins the fray as well.

Ran is the only ninja that willfully jingles when she walks. Sakura just smiles and shakes her head. Nothing, she realizes, will goosestep her daughter into conformity.

* * *

**Genetic**

When Sakumo is seven, he's teased mercilessly by his classmates for his hair. However, at just seven Hatake Sakumo is every bit a Hatake and stops letting his mom do more than trim his hair. When his father raises a skeptical eyebrow at this, the boy simply smiles in response.

When he's eight, Ran is five, and she understands exactly what the bullies are saying. He still doesn't care, but Ran does and she objects to their opinions in a tactfully worded protest delivered by her fists. He pulls her off the kid and carries her home, where he gives her a cookie and a hug.

Sakumo is ten the first time he ducks behind his father and whispers something about girls being weird. Kakashi had noticed the girls' admiring stares long before his son and found it all too hilarious. At twelve, Sakumo doesn't hide any more and the girls fall even harder when he smiles and holds doors open for them, but they're still, he confesses to his father, weird.

That same year, sweet and gentle Sakumo shocks his parents and teachers by getting into his first fistfight with a boy from his class. The boy is taken to the nurse's office with a profusely bleeding nose and Sakumo is sent home, where he tells his father what the other boy had said about the White Fang of Konoha.

Kakashi's stomach churns, but Sakumo training already to be a medic, so he explains carefully but bluntly everything about the first Hatake Sakumo's life and death. It's an hour before his son thanks him; for both the truth and for his name.

Hatake Sakumo is fifteen when he returns home from an extended mission away with his long, unruly hair tied back into a ponytail. His father is almost floored by the resemblance. There are no photos of the first Sakumo around for the boy to have taken the idea from, but the look is identical. That is, if the White Fang had ever opted to dye his hair pink.

Sakumo asks his father if he approves. Kakashi can only nod and kiss his son's temple in reply.

* * *

1. I really can't get enough of this family. I enjoy the hell out of these one-shots and I hope you guys do too.

2. Ran's hair is semi inspired by Rikku's look from Final Fantasy X-2.

3. Idioglossia is the term used to describe a made-up language spoken by a very tiny number of people, usually one or two. Lisa Gerrard sings in idioglossia for example. Cryptophasia is a similar phenomena, but it refers more directly to a made-up language shared by siblings, usually twins (which is why it's also known as "twin speak"). It's a rare thing and Ran and Sakumo aren't twins, but I thought it fit them anyway. Sai understands them because he's Sai and he is awesome.

4. Oh yeah. What they are all saying is complete gibberish. I just picked sounds that fit together and rolled easily off the tongue. Translate it yourself for your own amusement (and mine, if you want to leave your translation in your review).

Speaking of which, please review!


	5. Making Legends

**Making Legends**

Note: It may be safe to expect random updates of drabbles for a little while, fellows. I'm trying to get myself excited about Naruto again, so I'll be flexing some one-shot muscles to accomplish this.

This particular piece is inspired by an idea I had a little while ago based pretty much on this idea: since Sakumo's journey is a much more spiritual one, what would Ran's be? How would she ultimately prove herself worthy of the Hatake name? This is basically a summary of what came to mind. Much love to both KikuFire and nmmi-nut for listening to me babble about this thing.

* * *

"I'm going to die, aren't I?"

Pakkun looked to Ran and then away again. She looked a so much older than she was right then, her eyes dark from a lack of sleep and puffy from crying.

The sun was coming up in the east, casting light over the jagged cliffs and evergreen forests that surrounded them. They were seated together on the very edge of a narrow precipice that jutted forth from the face of one mountain near the cave that they had taken refuge in the night before. He had found Ran there almost an hour ago already, her legs dangling off the edge, the cold wind nipping at her legs and toes as she stared off into the distance.

"Of course not."

"Don't lie to me, Pak."

He took a breath. Her voice, filled with hopelessness, made him feel more his age than the wind that pierced him right down to his old bones.

What could he say? The situation was grim no matter how one viewed it. There was no telling how long Kakashi and the others had managed to hold off the Shadow-nin or even how many enemies there had been in total. To that end, Ran was just a Genin. While she had speed, stamina, and brains on her side, she had nothing in the way of nin-, tai-, or gen-jutsu that would assist her in combat.

That wasn't even the worst of it. They were _thousands_ of miles from home and while Pakkun had been to every shinobi country and then some the outer territories were completely foreign to him. And then that damn book. He cast a weary look back at Ran's rucksack lying innocently at the mouth of the cave they had huddled in the night before, the worn leather cover of that blasted thing peeking out from the opening. It might as well have been a warrant for Ran's life. Until they and it were safely home in Konoha there was not a soul they could trust.

"It doesn't look good, Kid," he said finally. "We're alone out here and I'm not as young as I used to be. This is on you."

"What about—"

"Ran, the village might not even know what happened yet."

Her eyes were still focused on the rocky peaks and treetops sprawled out in front of her, but he could see her lip quiver as she spoke next: "What about my dad? Uncle Yamato?"

An entirely new sort of cold settled into Pakkun's bones. "I don't know. They could be right behind us or they could be dead."

Ran flinched and then buried her chin into the folds of the scarlet-colored scarf tied around her neck as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut as her shoulders trembled. The Pug watched her. "Ran," he prompted gently. "Ya gotta talk to me, Kid."

She shook still as she raised her chin again and opened her eyes, but there was something different about her now. He inhaled. There was something new, something sharp in the air, in her chakra. "I promised Dad that I'd get the book to Konoha," she whispered. "If he is… if he is… I _have_ to." Her lips quivered and a fresh wave of tears spilled down her cheeks. "I can't let him down. He said it was important."

Kakashi always had a gift for understating things. This was the kind of thing that could plunge the whole shinobi world into yet another war. The other villages would have to be told as soon as Konoha figured it out and there was no telling what they might do.

Gods, Kakashi. Pakkun understood that it was the man's obligation as a father to have faith in his kid, but this was one hell of a thing to put on her.

"Then let's go."

Ran looked to him, confused. "What?"

Pakkun got to his feet. "We can't waste this head start," he said. "Get your bag." He looked to her when she hesitated to move. "C'mon, Kid. I'm not going home until you do. I owe you and your dad that." He tipped his head. "Are you with me?"

She stared at him for a moment longer and then she began to nod. "Yeah," she whispered and she lifted a hand to wipe her cheeks. "I am."

He nodded and watched as Ran stood, her knees shaking a little as she did so. She took a deep breath and looked back out toward the cliffs and trees around and below them and then up toward the sky. "I know it doesn't feel like it now," Pakkun began, sensing her hesitation, "But you're a Hatake. You were _born_ for this. Trust me."

"Still," she murmured, "If there's anyone out there listening, I wouldn't mind a hand."

She turned away then to gather her things from the cave. The Pug watched her for a moment and then looked skyward as well. "Amen to that," he whispered before following her.

* * *

1. This is obviously just a tiny part of what would be much much bigger if I had the time and inclination. Maybe once House Calls is finished? I don't know. I have a lot of irons in the fire, but I'm excited about this idea.

2. I suppose this is in part also inspired by that one phrase "Little ninjas on big adventures".

3. For those of you who are worried: no, Kakashi is not dead. He's alive and kicking and really freaking worried about his little girl.

4. Ran's little "prayer" at the end of this will be answered. Now, who exactly her ethereal helper should be is far beyond me because theoretically in the series her grandfather has moved on. Not that canon has ever stopped me.

5. The book Ran's carrying is called "The Book of Life and Death" and if you know what the Necronomicon is, it's basically supposed to be the Naruto world's rough equivalent to that.


	6. You'll Understand When You're Older

**You'll Understand When You're Older**

* * *

Ran knows what sex is by time she's twelve. It's boy bits and girl bits grinding and rubbing and, in the clinical opinion of a twelve year old, _eww_.

When she's fourteen and her mom sits her down for another talk, she can't help rolling her eyes. She isn't shy and there are things that she and her mother have discussed before that turned her father, of all people, green, but she's already heard this one before from Grandmother Tsunade and Aunt Shizune and she doesn't need it for a third time. "Mom, whatever you're going to say about condoms or STDs or orgasms, I _know_. Okay?"

"So you don't want to talk about that merchant boy?"

Ran will _kill_ Konohamaru-sensei and make it look like an accident for ever mentioning that incident. "Mom, nothing happened," she whines. "We were flirting a little and I kissed him so Jin and Taka could sneak in behind him."

Sakura sighs and lifted a hand to comb her daughter's long, uneven bangs out of her eyes with her fingers. "I just want you to be prepared," she said. "We don't always have a choice as ninja, but when we do sex should mean something. I know that mission sex isn't an uncommon occurrence, but—"

"But sex is the most intimate thing two people can share," Ran finishes. "I _know_."

But apparently she doesn't, because Sakura smiles at her and at the collision of adult dealings with the immaturity inherent in someone who hasn't seen nearly enough of the world to really know anything. "Honey," she begins gently, "Whatever else you take away from this conversation you should know this: there are things that are so much more intimate than sex."

Ran doesn't understand then, but she thinks she might be starting to when she comes in late from a mission a few weeks later and finds a light on in the kitchen and discovers her parents dancing together to music only they can hear and so focused on each other that they don't notice her as she stands in the doorway watching them.

* * *

1. Just a little bit of fluff before

2. CHAPTER 39 OF HOUSE CALLS! It's on its way people, I promise. I know I've been a slacker lately but it's been for good reason.


	7. Promises Kept

**Promises Kept**

* * *

Sakumo felt bones break under his fist followed closely by the deafening, thunder-like crack of earth as it split open under the sudden force bearing down it. Then, as dirt and rocks exploded around him and the ground opened up and collapsed, he felt the soft, warm insides of the human body around his fist. There was one final shudder of life and the nothing.

He took a deep breath in through his nose and then exhaled slowly as he straightened, pulling his hand free of the bandit's body with a sound that he'd hear in his dreams. The bandit's face had gone slack, but his eyes were still wide open from shock and the force of the blow.

The settling dust burned his eyes, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from the body. His stomach churned, his fists shook, and the warm, metallic taste of blood was pooling in his mouth but he couldn't move. He felt numb, deaf, and dumb. He could only see—see the dead, broken body in front of him. The body _he_ had broken.

The _vow_ to himself he had broken.

Medics were meant to heal, to serve. How could anyone who saw the sheer wonder that was the living machine of the human body take a life? It was against everything he believed. What could be gained in losing something so precious?

Sakumo was breathing harder now and the sickness swelling in his gut wracked his body with a disgusted shiver.

"Momo?"

All at once, life and awareness flooded back into him and the voice shattered his grief and disgust into a thousand pieces that dissolved into nothingness. "Mei-mei," he whispered.

He was at Ran's side before he even knew he was moving. She was prone on the ground, her eyes bleary and unfocused.

Screaming. Not the kind of screaming when she was losing a tickle fight or when she was just being a brat, but awful, gut-wrenching _screams_—sounds he wasn't sure a twelve-year-old could make without provocation. The brute had caught her sneaking; trying to get close enough to steal back the scroll they had lost earlier on the mission. He had smashed her into a tree trunk, dazing her. When Sakumo had caught up, he had her by the throat, coaxing her to scream because he wanted them both out of the way and nothing would draw a big brother in like the sound of his little sister in trouble.

"Mei-mei, it's all right," Sakumo said as he pushed her hair back from her eyes. "He's gone. Lay still for me, okay? I need to make sure that there isn't any damage before you move."

Dark, finger-shaped bruises were already forming on her throat and Sakumo's gut churned again, this time with anger. Whatever regret he felt melted away in an instant. He'd kill again if it meant protecting Ran. And again, and again, and again. After all, he had made that promise to her long before he had ever made that vow to himself.

* * *

1. Mm, not so crazy about this one. It was just a babble that came out of no where so... meh.

2. Although, his big brother instinct has always been a part of Sakumo's character. In my mind at least. Oh ho yes, don't think that him calling her "mei-mei" is coincidental. It's a very intentional nod to Simon Tam from Firefly, who is simultaneously one of the wimpiest and most badass big brothers ever.

3. I'll probably expand on how far Sakumo will go for Ran later. I wanted to do this as a sort of two-in-one, but it would have been much clunkier that way. For now, let's just say that Sakumo has an order of importance for his duties and promises and Ran tops out the list.

**Reviews feed the muse, darlings.**


	8. A Team Is

**A Team Is...**

* * *

From the time that Ran's photographic memory was discovered when she was nine, Kakashi wondered about what sort of team she'd end up on.

He was suitably unimpressed by the boys when he first met them. There wasn't an Inuzuka in her year, so she was jammed awkwardly in with two-thirds of a sensor division. In theory this made sense, he supposed. In time, not only would she be able to summon from his pack, but her flawless memory made her exceptionally suited for information gathering and having both a Hyuuga and an Aburame to back her up made sense.

Well half a Hyuuga and an Aburame who was strange even by Aburame standards.

Harada Ashitaka—Taka, Tak-Tak, or Idiot according to Ran—was the son of a married Hyuuga woman and a civilian with whom she had had an affair. It showed too, because he had the eyes of a Hyuuga but the sunny blond hair of an outsider. The Hyuuga woman's husband rejected him and with his mother dead and his father gone, the clan elders in all of their piousness had cast him aside, sticking him with his civilian father's name and washing their hands of him. According to Ran he lived with an old woman he called his grandmother in one of the civilian districts and when he fought he _danced_, something she was totally awed by.

On the other hand and rather simply put, Aburame Jin was _weird_. Weirdly polite, weirdly friendly, weirdly sociable, like someone had forgotten to tell him how Aburames were by default. He even smiled upon being introduced to Kakashi and bowed and that disturbed Kakashi more than the usual Aburame iciness ever had in his life. The boy wore his hair long and tied at the nape of his neck in a ponytail while he left his collar unbuttoned and his coat unzipped, revealing his face in full except for his dark shades.

As per usual, they didn't get on at first. The boys were good friends—bonded by their oddities, Kakashi supposed—and they looked at Ran as an interloper of sorts.

Then something changed. The three of them stumbled back to the Hatake residence one night, Jin carrying an exhausted Ran on his back while Konohamaru helped a limping Taka up the stairs.

Kakashi stood over them as Sakura attended to Taka's badly mangled leg and Sakumo attended to his sister's various lacerations. None of them would explain what had happened, but he recognized the look on Konohamaru's face as he watched over his students from where he sat propped in the corner of the laundry room. It was the same way Kakashi had found himself looking at Team Seven after their encounter in Wave Country—a combination of awe and reverence.

Konohamaru left the same night, but the boys stayed because when Hatake Sakura gave an order no one argued.

They spent the next morning on the porch eating breakfast and talking quietly. Kakashi watched through the screened windows as a kikai crawled over the back of his daughter's neck. He noticed another on her arm and then two on Taka as well. If they cared, neither of them said so. Then Ran tackled Taka off the porch to fight for the last strawberry that he had stolen out from under her hand. Kakashi smiled when she snatched it right out of the boy's hand with her teeth, nearly taking his fingers with it.

Kakashi watched the three grow together until the boys towered over his daughter, who could still outpace them both with little to no effort. He watched them when they first tied red ribbons around their upper arms and swore a pact of loyalty to each other and to the team, to always fight together, and to die together if they had to.

When they were sixteen, he watched his daughter and Jin take their places between Taka and the Hyuuga elders when the clan threatened to mark him. Ran stood poised with her fingertips pressed together to form a now very familiar seal while Jin's hands were slightly raised and hundreds of kikai dotted his exposed flesh.

Kakashi smiled proudly for a moment before taking a place beside his daughter and lifting his headband.

* * *

1. Short, drabblish, written a million years ago so blah for the quality.

2. I think that for Kakashi, his kids' teammates might as well be his kids too. Blood is relative, afterall.

3. Taka and Jin have maybe been mentioned a handful of times before this, but you can kind of consider this their semi-official introduction. I don't know what made me pick an Aburame and a half-Hyuuga, it was just a dynamic I was really interested in.

4. And Ran has an eidetic memory: she can recall everything that has happened to her ever in perfect detail. It is the only "superpower" I decided to give her.

**(As always, please review and if you are craving a bit of crack I have posted a new fic called For a Season. Please, check it out!)**


	9. In a Day

**In a Day**

* * *

Ran always tries to sneak into the Aburame compound even though someone always spots her. In fact, she knows that it's kind of impossible what with the bugs everywhere, but still it was good practice to try and it was _fun_.

This time one of the younger women finds her. She's Jin's third cousin (or something, she could never make sense of his family tree) and she's one of the only Aburame besides Jin that really smiles. She's even nice enough to give Ran a glass of water when she asks for one and lead her to Jin's room inside one of the many buildings on the property.

Ran is completely unrepentant when she climbs up onto Jin's headboard and then dumps the entire glass of water onto the boy, who's sprawled out in bed with his limbs every which way and his mouth wide open.

* * *

It's never quite as loud around the Aburame compound as when Hatake Ran shows up to gather her teammate. In fact, it's _never_ as loud as when she shows up. Ever.

The elders are perturbed by this. They interpret it as flagrant disrespect and haughtiness since there is no one else in the village that would ever dare disturb the peace of the compound. But Aburame Shibi can't help the private little grin that plays on his lips when he hears them coming—and one could _always_ hear them coming. With a shrieking peal of laughter, Hatake Ran slides between one of the elder's legs and pops back up onto her feet without breaking stride and his young cousin, in hot pursuit, dives around him so fast that he disturbs the tails of his coat.

It's healthy, he thinks as the boy shouts an apology over his shoulder, that Jin has teammates who accept him so wholly and with whom he feels so comfortable—they should all be so lucky. With that in mind, he dismisses the elders' scowls by silently turning away to lead them into the main house.

* * *

Taka's gran is old—like _old_-old—so Ran and Jin never come through the storefront because she always toddles out to see if there's a customer no matter how loudly they insist that they're just there for Taka. Instead, they climb the side of the building to Taka's window. He always sleeps with it open so they can always crouch right on the sill and peer inside.

Today, Jin's kikai wake him with their buzzing and tickling little legs skittering up and down his body under his sheets and shorts and Taka howls a curse at them and throws a shoe before rolling out of bed.

He's dressed before the other two even hit the street and another chase ensues, this time through the civilian district. They run around vendors and fruit stands and early morning customers and bound over canopies and vault over wheeled carts and get yelled at by those they leave in their dust, but they're all too breathless with laughter and happy _whoops_ to even think about apologies.

* * *

Hinata knows about the "rogue", as the elders call him. He was her cousin's child and she sees him and the dismissal of his existence as proof of the damage an arranged marriage could do.

Yet the boy thrives. No one expected the bastard to inherit the incredibly recessive Byakugan genes (the reason that marriages were so tightly controlled in the Hyuuga family) and he defies them all again when he begins to master his own style of fighting that utilizes the Byakugan's strengths.

She can't help but smile proudly when she sees him racing towards her and Hanabi, following on the heels of Sakura's youngest and a boy she recognized as Shino's cousin. He reminds her so much of Naruto that it makes her heart ache a little.

"Good morning, Ashitaka-kun," she says to the young boy as he runs passed.

He stops dead and turns to face her, his eyes wide. "Uh, good morning, Hinata-sama," he replies with a bow. "Good morning, Hanabi-sama."

The sisters smile back at him and then turn away to continue on.

The elders were wrong if they thought that he had didn't have any allies in the clan.

* * *

Konohamaru is informed by more than one individual on more than one occasion that his team is a menace, but he brushes these complaints aside. After all, it would be a bit hypocritical of him to scold his charges for their mischief when he himself had been no better.

Besides, it's as it should be. They could be ninja on missions and soldiers when they are far from home, but when they were safe in their own village, they should be children.

He sprawls out in the grass with them after training and he smiles at the way Ran hums to the boys as she rests her head against Jin's chest and her legs across Taka's lap. Neither boy says anything either, because they're all young but they understand already that they need to enjoy being together and this closeness is a priceless comfort.

* * *

There's a tender place in Sakura's chest that aches when she sees her daughter with her teammates. It's a bittersweet sort of pain fueled by nostalgia and longing, but it fades as quickly as it comes when she reminds herself that the past cannot be changed. In the end, all she can do is smile when she sees them laughing together as they come across the field toward the house and thank the gods that her daughter is so happy.

The trio parts ways at the porch and Ran shucks her sandals before dancing into the kitchen on her tip-toes. Sakura smiles when she strikes a pose. "How was your day?"

Ran shrugs, but she's smiling too as she takes a seat at the kitchen counter. "Same as everyday."

* * *

1. I swear I'll give the boys' speaking parts one of these eons.

2. I swear too that I will eventually introduce Sakumo's team.

3. And I swear that I will update House Calls eventually.

4. Annnd I think that covers everything! Please review!


	10. Like Father

**Like Father...**

* * *

"So, your mother thinks we need to talk."

Sakumo looked up at his father with one eyebrow lifted in a way that Kakashi suspected all medics learned to lift their eyebrows after a while. "Yeah?" he asked.

They were sitting together on the porch, hunched over a go board. His father was wearing a pale gray yukata opened over a pair of loose trousers with neither his mask nor his headband and he looked, to Sakumo, like an entirely different man. He smiled down at the board. They had finished training not an hour ago and his father, well into his fifties now, didn't even look winded let alone tired while he had stripped himself of most of his clothes to compensate for how much of a sweat he had worked up just trying to keep pace.

"It seemed silly to me to discuss sex with a medic, but she insisted."

Sakumo blushed pink but laughed and looked up at his dad, who he noticed has also turned a faint shade of red. "Yeah, we've pretty much covered that in the academy and at the hospital," he said, sounding strangled. "What did she think we needed to talk about?"

Kakashi shrugged and reached out to the board to make a move. "I think she just wanted to make sure you understood that you could talk to both of us if something came up or if you had any questions." He smiled a little and rubbed at the back of his head. "Even though you probably know things in theory that would surprise me."

The boy blushed a little more fervently but laughed again anyway. "Maybe," he said, obviously embarrassed. "But there's a difference between theory and practice in everything."

His father couldn't deny this and didn't try to. Instead his mouth ran away with him and he wondered if he was really to blame for Ran's sudden outbursts. "So… there's not been anyone yet?"

Sakumo was now a shade and a half darker than his hair. "No," he admitted. "I mean, it's just… I can't do it—I mean I _could_, it's not like I've not had any offers—but I can't be in a relationship right now with training and missions and I don't think I can be casual about that kind of thing and that sounds _stupid_, doesn't it?"

Kakashi smiled. It was so refreshing to hear his son, who was so worldly and wise and smart, sound like an actual teenager every now and then. "I don't think so."

His son rolled his eyes. "It's all the other guys talk about," he said. "They brag about the prostitutes they've been with and which kunoichi they'd like to get in their beds."

"What do you talk about?"

"I ask them to consult me if they start experiencing any troubling symptoms indicative of a sexually transmitted disease and I refuse to bathe in the same onsen as them."

Kakashi laughed out loud and his son smiled.

For a few moments, neither said anything and instead focused on the game board between them. Then Kakashi said, with a casual air, "So, that teammate of yours is very pretty."

Sakumo sighed, sounding defeated and annoyed all at once. "Am I that obvious?"

His father grinned. "Your mother still doesn't know," he offered, trying to balm his son's wounded pride. For an experienced veteran like his father, the boy was sometimes too easy to read. "Well?"

Sakumo squirmed as he thought of his teammate. Fierce, harsh, demanding Shiori with the golden, hawk-like eyes and long, violet hair was the daughter of a war refugee and a master swordswoman in her own right. She had been a jounin since she was fourteen, terrified most of her senior commanders, and hadn't taken well to being stuck on a team with Konoha's most famous martial pacifist.

And, gods help him, Sakumo was completely smitten.

"I'm screwed," the boy said with a resigned kind of certainty.

Kakashi laughed. "I didn't know my mother much," he murmured. "But if _your_ mother is anything to go by… yeah. We Hatake men seem to have a thing for that sort of woman."

Sakumo raised an eyebrow at his father. "Mom was scary when you married her?"

"Your mother has _always_ been scary."

The boy chuckled miserably and rubbed at his forehead. "Well, I guess it can't be that bad," he said after a while. "I mean, you two are happy, right?"

His father smiled. "Your mother has given me everything I never dared to think I deserved," he replied. He reached out to comb his fingers gently through his son's hair and out of his doleful, gray eyes. "Like you and your sister."

Sakumo nodded slowly. "I'll be content to find someone who makes me half that happy," he replied. "Sadly, Shiori might kill me sooner than that."

Kakashi threw his head back and laughed again and his son grinned widely as he reached for the board to make a move. That was how Sakura found them an hour later as she came across the field toward the house, the dogs at her heels. Kakashi frowned a bit when he realized the group was down by one head of silver hair. "Where's Ran?" he called.

"She told me that she and the boys are camping out on the Hokage monument," his wife replied.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "You believe that?"

His wife laughed. "Of course not," she replied, leaning down to kiss him gently on the lips. "But I didn't ask. We'll find out soon enough when Shikamaru brings her home, dragging her by her braid." She paused. "That is if Naruto doesn't have something to do with it. Hokage or not, he's never grown out of his mischievous streak." She paused to kiss her son's forehead. "If you happen to find the time yet tonight—"

"I'll go look for her, Mom," he son cut in with a smile. "Don't worry."

She returned the smile with fondness and then straightened, lifting the grocery bags in her hands to show them off. "Whoever comes in to help with dinner doesn't have to help with dishes."

Father and son glanced at one another and then at their game board. "I'll wash if you dry," Kakashi offered as he reached out to move a piece.

Sakumo nodded. "Deal."

* * *

1. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I know it's been ages since I updated and bleehhhh. I just really haven't had time to write lately and it SUCKS.

2. Someone asked about me writing a father/son companion piece to the earlier chapter that features Sakura's and Ran's talk about sex. Sooo here you go!

3. I am ridiculously unhappy with how this turned out, but I did really enjoy writing Sakumo and Kakashi together, because I realized that I haven't really done that since chapter one.

4. Don't talk to me about the manga. I just can't even.

5. House Calls! I swear, House Calls will be updated! I don't know when, I just promise that it's not abandoned and the final chapter will go up eventually!  
I've come too damn far to quit!

**Please review.**


	11. This is My Place

**This is My Place**

* * *

"Please understand, Sakumo."

Sakumo didn't. Wouldn't. Couldn't.

But Ran was pleading with him to. Her big green eyes were begging him to please, please understand and he couldn't help it.

Ran hadn't taken their parents' deaths well. It was a black stain on her heart and whatever loyalty she had to Konoha had dried up. ANBU didn't offer her any solace and whatever peace could be found among her team didn't give her comfort. Their parents had never failed Konoha, but Konoha had failed them.

Her headband was gone. She didn't even take it off to sleep as far as Sakumo knew so he understood in an instant how bad this was. He didn't know where she was going, of course, but then Ran probably didn't either.

Sakumo shifted his weight and the tree branch was standing on rustled a little. They were only a few kilometers from the village and maybe he could have talked her into coming back with him and forging ahead and just forgetting this. Their parents were gone, but they had no shortage of family who loved them and always would and this would destroy them.

"It doesn't mean anything anymore," she said. "I can't pretend. Please, Sakumo."

He stared at her and for a short eternity wondered. What would his father do? What would the village think? What would happen?

But his little sister was in pain and confused and lost and he was her older brother. She needed him when she skinned her knees and when her teammates made her angry and when she didn't have the strength to stand any more during their parents' joint funeral. She needed him on the nights she came home from her ANBU missions and stared blankly into space, lost in the void of her own mind and grief. She needed him when she wouldn't eat and her body began to eat away at itself.

And she needed him now.

And knowing that drowned out the sound of his own headband as he dropped it to the forest floor below and it landed somewhere with a metallic _clank_. He leapt from his branch to hers and landed, whisper quiet beside her.

He reached out a laid a hand upon her arm, rubbing his thumb briefly over the black ink of the tattoo that marked her bicep and then he met her eyes. "We'll have to stop for supplies eventually," he said. "So let's try to get as far as we can before that. We'll need the head start."

Ran's expression was caught somewhere between horror and awe. "Sakumo, you can't," she protested.

He smiled at her. "When Mom and Dad let me hold you after you were born, I told you that I'd always protect you, that I'd always be there," he said. "I promised you that. And I'm not breaking that promise now."

She stared at him, her eyes misty. Then she began to cry and threw herself at his waist and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, realizing just vaguely that he had not seen her cry since she was a little girl. Not even at the funeral. She had been stone and that, he thought, had been Konoha's fault.

"C'mon," he said after a minute and he straightened a little and pushed her to arm's length as she wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her over-sized jacket. "We'll only have a couple of days before they realize what's happened. Let's go."

"You're leaving Konoha," Ran replied, as if trying to bring weight back to the situation. "For me?"

Sakumo smiled at her and knew that this would be worth it. Even if he ended up some head on a spike, this would be worth it in the end, because he could live knowing he had of deserted his village for his sister, but not the other way around. "At first I came here to stop you," he replied. "I'm sorry about that. I guess I forgot where I belonged for a minute there."

For the first time in months—since the funeral, since everything—Ran smiled at him. It was weak and hesitant at first, a mere shadow of the radiant grins he had once known her for, but it was a start and it made this worth it.

"Come on, Mei-mei," he said. "_Ib nee_."

* * *

1. So let's just say this is, like, if there was a "bad future" scenario. Like what, I don't know. Maybe Danzo came to power or maybe this is a universe where the Uchiha run things. Whatever. The idea of Ran becoming a missing-nin occurred to me once a long time ago and I wondered how Sakumo would react. Then I dope-slapped myself, because the answer was obvious. If Ran was going to leave the village, he'd leave with her.

2. The point is that Sakumo is, first and foremost, Ran's big brother and as far as he's concerned SHE is his job. Konoha is just an employer.

3. So he's kind of a nod to Simon Tam in the Firefly verse AND Itachi in some small way.

4. And my own brother in some smaller way I guess.

5. "Ib nee" is a nod back to the idea that they have their own language. He's basically telling her "let's go".


End file.
